Audiobook Review: Truth or Beard by Penny Reid

Author: Penny Reid

Narrator: Joy Nash , Chris Brinkley

Title: Truth or Beard

(Winston Brothers #1)

Genre: Romance, Humor, Contemporary 

Format: Audiobook

Published: July 21st 2015 

Where I got It: Audible

Summary: 

Beards, brothers, and bikers! Oh my!

Identical twins Beau and Duane Winston might share the same devastatingly handsome face, but where Beau is outgoing and sociable, Duane is broody and reserved. This is why Jessica James, recent college graduate and perpetual level-headed good girl, has been in naïve and unhealthy infatuation with Beau Winston for most of her life.

His friendly smiles make her tongue-tied and weak-kneed, and she’s never been able to move beyond her childhood crush. Whereas Duane and Jessica have always been adversaries. She can’t stand him, and she’s pretty sure he can’t stand the sight of her…

But after a case of mistaken identity, Jessica finds herself in a massive confusion kerfuffle. Jessica James has spent her whole life paralyzed by the fantasy of Beau and her assumptions of Duane’s disdain; therefore she’s unprepared for the reality that is Duane’s insatiable interest, as well as his hot hands and hot mouth and hotter looks. Not helping Jessica’s muddled mind and good girl sensibilities, Duane seems to have gotten himself in trouble with the local biker gang, the Iron Order.

Certainly, Beau’s magic spell is broken. Yet when Jessica finds herself drawn to the man who was always her adversary, now more dangerous than ever, how much of her level-head heart is she willing to risk?

Review:

I feel like this book has been haunting me. I see it everywhere. This one and the others in the series. I've been interested, just never went out of my way to read it. When it appeared as an Audible recommendation, I decided it was time to give it a listen. 

We follow Jessica and Duane. The two have been at each other's throats since they were kids. At the same time Jessica has been head over heels in love with Duane's twin Beau. Even after going to college and coming back years later, she still nearly faints at the sight of Beau. But after a case of mistaken identity, Jessica finds herself in a massive complex bubble of feelings. 

Going in I thought this was going to be a feel good, Hallmark-y romance. Oh boy was I wrong. YES there is humor and feel good moments....but this was much more complex and more layered then I thought. Which made me like this even more. Yayy!! I love me some complex characters. 

I did want to smack Duane and Jessica occasionally. They are so pig-headed. The solution was simple, but they were stuck inside their own flaws to realize it. Can't blame them...esp Duane. He doesn't want to step on her dreams like his jerk dad did to his mom. Pretty much trapped her. He wants Jessica happy. And Jessica doesn't want to pull Duane away from him family because she has wanderlust and wants to see the world. 

Easy solution for sure BUT it took them a while to get out of their own heads. 

I will say...Duane lost a lot of points from me after a certain scene. IDK. It really burned me how he treated her. He does...kinda to make it up to her, but I feel like Jess should've made him sweat a moment and really earn her. He was a super, duper asshat. 

On top of their stuff, there are some external dramas. Like Jess finding out a family secret and Duane having to save his idiot older brother. Tsk. 

I liked the brothers except for the oldest one. He is a hooligan. I know he'll get his shit together eventually (I believe he has a book coming up), but omg. I'm glad the brothers didn't let him off easy. He owes them for saving his butt.

We had two narrators here and it worked well. I've heard the male voice multiple times. He is a good one! I do not recall the female voice....but I liked her. She did good. No issues here. :) Good team up!

In the end, I did enjoy this quite a bit. This is a lot more complex then the summary and cover let on. Which was a pleasant surprise. My only issue is that Duane did take it too far at a certain point and I feel like Jess too easily forgave him. Besides that this was a good listen. I am curious about the next books. I'll give this 3 stars. 

Challenge(s):
- #77 for Audiobook challenge